The amount of information being generated worldwide in business and research activities is growing at a staggering rate. Sharing this information with others can be extremely valuable. For instance, tightening competitive environments and global economic trends are forcing businesses and entire industries to search for a means to gain an advantage. This advantage can be realized through the use of past knowledge relating to their business or organization—allowing better and more timely decisions, leading to a better understanding of their business and support for their customers, that ultimately leads to growth. However, before information can be disseminated to others, it must generally be analyzed and organized into a report, or presentation.
Even after information that is to be presented in the report has been analyzed and organized, a substantial amount of time typically goes into producing a presentation-quality report. This is because presentations typically include a number of different components such as written material for audience distribution, overhead transparencies for projector display, speaker notes, and so on. These different components are often generated using various computer program applications (e.g., word processing applications, slide presentation applications, and the like) from various data sources. To print these different components, each component must typically be printed—file-by-file, using the particular application that generated the file, and then assembled into at least one complete package that can be taken to a copy center for reproduction.
For example, consider that a daylong presentation includes a meeting agenda, morning and afternoon session written materials, slides, and speaker notes. Consider that the meeting agenda and the written materials for the morning session need to be printed using a particular word processor (e.g., Microsoft Word®) on A4 size paper. The written materials for the afternoon session need to be printed using a different word processor (e.g., Corel WordPerfect®), on standard (8½×11) paper print media. A single copy of slides needs to be printed on overhead transparency print media (e.g., plastic sheets) using a slide presentation application such as Microsoft PowerPoint. The speaker notes, which were generated with the same application that was used to generate the slides, need to be printed on paper print media.
In this example, a user needs to manually coordinate printing the presentation by: (a) using various word processing applications; (b) a slide presentation application; and, (c) configuring the various word processing applications and/or the printer at appropriate times to access particular media supply trays to accommodate the various types of print media required (i.e., A4 and standard sized paper, and plastic overhead transparencies). Thus, producing even a single copy of a presentation-quality report is typically a time-consuming and burdensome process. To make matters worse, consider that this time consuming procedure may need to be performed at periodic time intervals if the report is updated on a regular basis (e.g., weekly financial reports, status reports, and so on).
Accordingly, the following described subject matter addresses these and other problems of printing material for presentation.